A Dream for a Dream

A Dream for a Dream

chapter 2

So that's how it all started. Rather inauspicious, isn't it. I can't possibly tell you how remorseful I was for... well, basically destroying my best friend's life dream all in one stupid moment. I'd like to be able to say that the worst was over at that point. I suppose, in a way you could say that it was, as I never did get a chance to do anything even more damaging to my poor dobe. ( I guess I shouldn't call him that anymore.) But there was a lot more heartache to come.

You see, by the time I managed to muster up the fortitude and moral integrity to find Naruto and apologize, it was already too late. No, he wasn't killed or anything. I simply couldn't find him. When I finally asked the Hokage to tell me where the heck he had gotten to, which took some doing, as she was really not impressed with me, she told me that he wouldn't be back in the village for some time.

"What do you 'think' happened to him, Uchiha? After that total disaster, that 'you' caused, he was a total wreck and the entire village is up in arms over him right now. I sent him away for his own good until all of this blows over somewhat."

"You kicked him out of the village?!" even I couldn't hide my surprise at such a callous idea. ( I know, I know. Like I'm one to talk.)

"I didn't kick him out!" she hissed, actually 'hissed' at me. "I sent him on a mission."

"You just said he was a wreck. What are you doing sending him on a mission?" I demanded.

"You said he was your friend, what were 'you' doing sending him up the river?" she snapped back. It was childish but I deserved it. "It's a long term but very easy mission and he has his team with him. He should be fine. Better than he'd be in this village right now."

"How long will he be gone?" I asked, masking my defeat as well as possible. She sighed and took pity on me anyway, giving me what assurance she could.

"It's six months of reconnaissance, give or take a week or two. They are to observe our new allies in grass, just to be certain that they are keeping to the deal and behaving as allies. It works out I suppose. I did need to know that they can be trusted and it's practically more of a vacation than a mission in any case. They simply have to keep their cover as traveling civilians, send the occasional message and have Yamanaka record anything interesting or suspicious with that advanced jutsu of hers. There shouldn't be any real danger or need for urgency."

'Six months', I thought. 'Six months before I can apologize. Six months for Naruto to stew over what happened, and either get over it or grow all the more angry and resentful towards me.' It was the longest six months of my life.

----------------------------------------------------

Actually it wasn't quite six months when Naruto's team returned to Konoha... without Naruto. You can imagine what kind of a panic that put me in. ( Enough to show that I was at least slightly perturbed, which rarely happens.)

Word got around very quickly, almost instantly in fact as rumours are prone to do in a ninja village, and most of the village was ready to declare Naruto a traitor and a missing nin by the time the rest of the team reached the Hokage's office at the tower.

As it turned out the true story was stranger than fiction, and possibly the most devastating information I ever had to force myself to assimilate.

The Hokage took care to keep the meeting as private and low key as possible no one was allowed in but the team and the elders. I was hidden just outside the window, suppressing my chakra with all my considerable skill.

I suspect that Tsunade may have guessed I was there but if so, she said nothing about it and continued as usual. (Now, I'm pretty sure that was because she knew that whatever I found out, would be punishment enough.)

Neji, as Naruto's second in command was the one to respond to the interrogation.

"Your captain is missing."

"Yes Hokage sama. He will not ever be returning to Konoha." My heart clenched at his very matter-of-fact statement and I had to take a moment to center myself while Tsunade demanded a full account of the events following the last received message. Ino stepped in at this point.

"To begin, I should relay to you certain information that Naruto shared with us some time before the, uh... events in question," said a slightly nervous looking Ino. Neji and Kiba who made up the rest of the team seemed pretty subdued themselves. "You see, Naruto was sort of depressed for awhile after we left and Kiba had the brilliant idea of encouraging him to drink away his troubles and trying to 'get him laid'."

The blond girl actually raised her hands to form quotation marks as she spoke the phrase and Kiba chuckled, quickly turning it into a pathetically fake cough. I wanted to wring his stupid neck! Tsunade cleared her throat suspiciously and signaled Ino to continue.

"He couldn't get him out to a bar so he brought the sake to our room at the time and managed to get him to take some of it, hoping it would loosen him up enough to make him more open to the idea of going with him to pick up women. As it turned out, trying to get Naruto laid was a supremely wasted effort, but he did get him drunk enough to loosen his tongue.

I thought that if he was going to finally open up about his feelings, it would be a shame for him to forget it in the morning and miss out on anything he might have learned from it, so I started recording.

He ended up giving us some amazing and very sensitive information that directly relates to the reason for his absence."

"You have this conversation recorded?" Tsunade asked, leaning forward in her seat to focus her full attention on the mind jutsu specialist. Ino nodded and the Hokage directed her to share this mental record with her alone first. Every good ninja understands the significance of 'sensitive information'.

Ino came forward without hesitation and took Tsunade's hand as the older woman stood. Both sets of eyes glazed over as the jutsu activated and the selected information began to transfer between them. A few moments later, they blinked back into real time and Ino released the Hokage's hand and stepped back.

Tsunade looked sincerely stunned by whatever she had learned. She was literally reeling and fell back to slump heavily into her chair, which had my mind racing through the many horrible possibilities.

"What is it Hokage sama?" asked one of the council members. Tsunade held up a hand to stall him and beckoned Shizune to her. She whispered something in her assistant's ear and Shizune stepped back. With a nod and salute, she turned and left the room.

"I suppose I have no choice but to let you all review the information directly. I can't keep this from the council. Ino you may as well go ahead. The telepathic relay is faster anyway." Ino nodded and stepped forward to take the hand of two of the elders. The rest began to join hands with each other in a circle.

I couldn't stand this secrecy anymore, not when it had to do with my dobe's welfare. I needed to know what was going on, so I jumped into the window and walked stiffly to the circle.

The elders all cast their gaze to Tsunade, who simply nodded, allowing me to stay. She seemed completely unsurprised, which is why I was sure she knew of my presence all along.

When we were all connected, Ino began to broadcast her information through the connection. Suddenly I was standing in a meager hotel room looking from Ino's perspective at Kiba and Naruto, each sitting on their respective single beds, facing each other, with several empty bottles of sake on the floor between them. The vague shape of the Hyuuga, leaning against the frame of the room's one window could be made out on the peripheral. Kiba was pouring himself another drink and evidently trying to persuade a nicely buzzed Naruto to go out and pick up chicks with him.

"I can't Kiba," Naruto sighed, shaking his head.

"Oh come on buddy. Sure you can!" said Kiba with a grin as he slapped his teammate on the back.

"No, you don't understand," Naruto drawled. "I mean I can't. As in, 'I am physically incapable'." Kiba's brows knotted in confusion.

"What are you talking about man?"

"I just can't! I never have, ok?"

"You're a virgin?! ...Physically incapable?!!! How the hell did that happen?!!"

"Look Kiba, I appreciate that you're trying to help out and make me feel better, but there's nothing really to feel better 'about'. The fact is, the villagers, the council, they're right! They're all right about me. I 'am' a demon."

"Dude, don't say that," Kiba slurred reproachfully.

"But I am. I mean that literally. I am not human. At least not fully. Not any more." Ino froze and Neji's head quickly turned away from the window as he evidently began to take interest in the conversation. Naruto just smirked at Kiba's stupidly blank expression and continued.

"It's like this. I had no friends or family when I was little. No one to talk to me or answer my questions, and therefore... I had no way of knowing what was normal and what wasn't. Eventually though, when everyone else around me was hitting puberty, I had to realize that I wasn't like other guys my age. So I started doing the research to figure out where I went wrong and why."

"What do you mean by 'going wrong'?" asked the drunk and confused dog nin.

"I wasn't developing an interest in girls and sex." an intoxicated Naruto was apparently even more blunt than usual.

"So really are gay!"

"No... well... no, not really." Naruto let out another sigh and started massaging his temples in obvious frustration. "I'm not attracted to 'anyone' that way and I think it's because I haven't developed sexually like a normal human would. I think I've been growing the way a demon would. I figured if I'm not normal, then it probably had something to do with Kyuubi."

"Naruto," Neji's voice cut in. "Are you saying that the demon has been changing you somehow? This is serious! Why wouldn't you have said something before?!"

"I told you, I didn't know that the way I was developing wasn't normal for a long time. How would I know? I had no information. I didn't even know there was a demon inside me 'till I was twelve!

That's where the third made a mistake, I think. Gaara knew from the beginning and fought his demon off everyday of his life. Of course it drove him nuts, but the alternative is me. I just 'let' all this demon chakra run rampant through my system my whole life, not realizing what was going on and assuming everything was normal."

"What's the bottom line here Naruto?" asked Ino sternly while Kiba's head swung back and forth between them looking utterly lost.

"I believe I've been permanently altered on a genetic level and I am essentially more demon than human." Naruto answered solemnly which actually looked more cute than anything with his bleary eyes. That didn't diminish the gravity of his revelation though.

There was a seemingly long pause before Neji spoke again in a carefully controlled voice.

"You mentioned some research?"

"Yeah I found as much info as possible on demon growth and development, and I seem to be following that pattern. I can't say that I would really mind it if I knew nobody 'else' would. I think demons would find human development pretty impractical and backwards, what with being able to become sexually active before you really become an adult.

Demons become adults first and 'then' sexuality comes into play. Human kids have sex with everyone in the damn neighborhood and sometimes even get pregnant when they lack the life experience, and the mental and emotional capacity to handle the consequences. I mean, doesn't that sound backwards to you? Don't you thi..."

"Get to the point Naruto," said Ino, waving off his drunken rambling.

"Point?...uh... Oh! Yeah, well if I'm as much a demon as I think I am then eventually I'll go into a heat cycle of sorts, but until then..." He trailed off with a shrug.

"Wait!" Kiba practically shouted as his mental light-bulb finally came on. "That means you really 'couldn't' have tried to get in Sasuke's pants! 'Cause you have no interest in sex at all right?"

"That's right," Naruto grinned. Then his face fell. "Since I don't have a physical attraction to force me to think about my feelings for certain people, I never really realized how much he meant to me... until he shoved it in my face like that... I haven't been able to think about anything else since."

"Oh Naruto, I'm sure he's sorry for saying all that stuff," said Ino wrapping a comforting arm around him. The blond shook his head, looking even more miserable.

"If he does, then it's because he thinks he's wrong. But he's not. Not completely. I may not have been hitting on him, but I did feel a lot more for him than a 'friend' should. If he found out, then he'd just reject me like that all over again.

He was furious Ino! The very thought of me in that way was just so horrible to him."

"He's your best friend Naruto..."

"I'm not sure we can ever be friends again. He'd feel uncomfortable around me at best and everything would be awkward. It would just be a mockery of what we once had. I don't want to ruin what good memories I have like that."

"Does this mean you really are gay then?"

"KIBA!!" Ino smacked the brunet upside the head for his insensitivity.

"What?!" Kiba whined, rubbing his head.

"I suppose I 'will' be, by human standards," came Naruto's quietly cryptic answer.

"Eh!" two of his companions chorused. The blond flopped down on his stomach on the bed, resting his chin on his folded hands.

"Demons don't have two separate genders y'know. Any one of them is able to 'perform either role in the reproductive cycle'." The quotation marks were fairly audible in his voice. He really 'had' done his homework.

"Which means that a heat cycle is a time of fertility, when one is ready to assume the role of, uh, er... carrier I guess. The only time an unmated demon will feel any sexual urges, is when they are in heat themselves or are near another unmated demon who's in heat.

As a demon, or half demon at least... Whatever I am, I should have my first heat, pretty soon I think, and what my instincts will want is someone with the... equipment to impregnate me. I won't ever be able to mate with a human female because they ovulate about twelve times a year instead of just one, and therefore the pheromones they give off wouldn't be strong enough to trigger a reaction in me."

"Woah!" Kiba breathed. "You mean You're only going to get to have sex once a year?! That sucks man!" he plopped down on the bed beside the blond man and patted his back sympathetically.

"Not really Kiba." Naruto clarified, looking up at his teammate. "It just means that I can only ever have sex with one person. Once a demon mates, their mate's own special scent and chakra and pheromones are imprinted on them. Mates can be intimate at any time, though they can only get pregnant once a year. No one else will ever hold any interest for either of them again though."

Naruto paused and gave a small, bitter smile. "I doubt I'll ever have a mate though. I'm not a real demon after all. And I'm not a real human either. Nobody will want to be stuck with me for life. Even my own best friend was so against the idea that he couldn't even bring himself to let me down gently."

Ino dropped down on Naruto's other side and began stroking his hair while Kiba continued to pat his back, but all was silent for some time as they tried to wrap their brains around the startling information they'd just been handed.

"Naruto," Ino started finally. "Do you really think you might be enough of a demon to... be both male and female like that?" Naruto chuckled but it was an alarming sound that scraped at the mind.

"Oh hell! What do I know? I could be totally wrong about 'everything'. Maybe I'm really just a eunuch or something!"

His chuckle rose into a terribly self-deprecating laughter that faded as Ino's recorded information ran out and everyone in the circle, shook themselves back into consciousness only to glance around at each other uncomfortably.




(A/N; Okay, so I've had it suggested to me, that I should make the story longer than just four chapters. After a few experiments, I had decided that it was more powerful if Sasuke was telling the story directly. Of course, that means you lose a lot of information that could have been told by an omniscient narration, which was the reason for the shortness. Now I don't want to lose that impact but I do kind of agree that it could stand to be a bit longer. So I've pretty much decided to add in a few chapters from Naruto's pov. That should bring it up to six or seven chapters, depending on how I decide to wrap it up.)